EDITING IN TRANSLATION

WORK OF EDITOR IN TRANSLATION

The editor’s job is to
• consider how the translator has solved the
particular problems of the source language text
• discuss the translation problems
TRANSEDITTING
 Translation and Transediting
• Publishers print text of any kind.
• Translations of these kinds of texts have in
only one thing common: THE FINAL STEP
• This step is editing.
• So, a new concept-TRANSEDITING can be
used.
 Translation and Transediting
• Transediting started new areas for
translators, academics and the translation
criticism.
• Transediting gave birth to an other need:
EDUCATED EDITORS.
• Educated Editors are the editors/translators
who will edit the works of educated
translators.
 Education of Transeditors
• Not many departments of translation offer
courses related to EDITING.
• Therefore, the graduate who wish to work in the
field of literature become translators, not
editors.
• Also, the translations of the graduates are being
edited by editors who did not receive any
translation editing theory.
 Transediting
The aim of transediting is
• to provide editors with a descriptive
study of the final phase of the
translation, that’s, editing.
 Transediting / Translation criticism
• Transediting is somehow similar to
translation criticism.
• The aim of the translation criticism is the
description and analysis of translation
process
• Transediting shares this aim and it also
includes modification and editing.
 Transediting
• Editing process requires absolute competence in
the fields of translation theories and criticism,
linguistics, stylistics and literary theories.
• The interventions made to the text are divided
into four main activities:
- seletion
- addition
- substitution
- reorganization
 EDITING PROCESS
• The editing processes of a translated book will be analysed
in the light of tranlsation studies under three main concerns:
- Terminology, vocabulary and style: which will analyze the
stylistic revisions, vocabulary preferences and approaches
followed when solving terminological translation problems.
- Figures of speech: which will analyze the editor’s
interventions about the metaphors, similes and other figures
of speech
- General choices: which will include the revisions, which stem
from the choice of dictionary of spelling, the principles of
the publishing house and editor’s personal values.
 SAMPLE 1:
5 minute Iliad and Other Instant Classics
• It is a humorous book by Greg Nagan.
• It summarizes many of the well-known world classics in
several pages in a cynical, funny and witty way.
• The style:
- The writer uses American slang during the majority of
the text.
- Also, he mixes it with some old phrases of English,
which can be archaic usages.
- He sometimes uses rhymes, sometimes puns,
sometimes plays with the words of English.
 Terminology, vocabulary and style
• The first chapter has a rich mythological terminology.
• The translator generally uses the Turkish transcription
of these terms as in Hercules-Herkül, Achaean-Akha.
• Some of these terms are changed by the editor
because of the transcription differences.
• For example; “Troy” is transcripted as Truva by the
translator, but editor changes it into Troya.
• The reason of this change is that many Turkish
scholars of archeology suggest the word Troya is the
right choice because of the transcriptional differences
between the languages of Latin and ancient Greek.
• In the chapter titled “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
gives a little information about Oscar Wilde:

• The author uses the phonological harmony

between “mail” and “male” and refers to Oscar
Wilde’s being a homosexual.
The translation of this part

The revision of the translated part:

• The translator uses the first equivalent of the
word “mail” which is “posta”.
• The translator pasifies the connotation of
homosexuality.
• The editor used the word “top” which
means “ball” in Turkish but has another
meaning in the slang as “homosexual”
• He also completed the sentence by
expressing that it is surprising because
Wilde had never dealed with the sports.
• The editor used the word “top” which
means “ball” in Turkish but has another
meaning in the slang as “homosexual”
• He also completed the sentence by
expressing that it is surprising because
Wilde had never dealed with the sports.
• With such a revision, Turkish both
understands that Wilde is a homosexual
and a ridiculously naive man.
 Figures of Speech
• In the chapter titled “The Iliad”, the original text
includes a sentence like
Achilles, he was a heel.

• With this metaphor, the author referred to

- the famous “heel” of the Achilles, which is the
only point in his body that is vulnerable to
weapons
- the colloquial meaning of the word “heel” which
meant “lowlife”.
• The translator used the Turkish
equivalent of the “heel”, which is
“topuk” and he placed a footnote to
express the metaphor in the source
text.
• The editor removed the footnote because he
thought that footnotes damage the reading
harmony in mainstream for novels.
• The editor revised the sentence and the
metaphor:

Akhilleus başından topuğuna kadar alçağın tekiydi.

• With a translation like this, Turkish can

understand the two meanings that the author
referred.
 Figures of Speech
• In the chapter titled “The Od Man and The Sea”,
the original text includes a sentence like
• The translated version of this sentence is like
that:
• The edited version of this sentence is like that:

• The editor created Turkish anagrams that makes

the readers understand the situation more
clearly.
 General Choices
• In the chapter titled “1984” is full of political
vocabulary like “totalitarism”, “pragmatism”.
• The translator used the Turkish equivalents of
these words, which are “bütüncülük” and
“yararcılık”.
• The editor thought that this method was
appropriate.
 General Choices
• However, the chief editor of the publishing house
stated that these words should be translated by
using the transcription method.
• The words were edited as “totalitarizm” and
“pragmatizm”.
• This is patronage in translation.
 SAMPLE 2:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
• It is a fiction book by Zora Neale Hurston.
• The translators of this book had lived in the USA
and they are familiar both with the Black English
and culture.
• It follows the fortunes of a woman-Janie living in
the black town of Eaton, Florida.
• In the first chapter sets up this woman’s characters
and her locale , which, along with the last, acts as a
framing device for the story of the woman’s life.
 SAMPLE 2:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Language plays a crucial role in the whole of the book.
• The book is framed more as an act of telling than
writing.
• The strongest element of the book is the style of
Hurston.
- Use of colloquial Black English
- Beautifully musical-poetic style
- The use of southern vernacular
- The depiction of southern rural life
 SAMPLE 2:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
• One of the most important aspect of the novel is
Hurston’s split style of narrative.
• The book begins in a third-person narrator’s voice, one
that is decidedly literary and intellectual, full of
metaphors, figurative language and other poetic devices.
• This voice anchors the entire novel and is clearly
separate from Janie’s voice.
• Hurston splits the narrative between this voice and long
passages of dialogue uninterrupted by any comment
from the narrator.
• The style used in the long dialogue passages:
- highly colloquial language,
- colorful folksy aphorism,
- avoidance of standard written English.
- a rich folk tradition
• The oscillation between standard written English
and black vernacular English mirrors one of the
novel’s central themes: the importance of
controlling language.
• Throughout the book, we see Janie struggle with
her own voice and control of language.
 Terminology, vocabulary and style
• A sample from the text
• The editor added the first sentence
colloquial elements such as “bakın
hele”.
• He expressed the naiveness of the
second sentence by adding a “ki” at
the end of it.
• The edited sentence sounds more
“folksy” to the Turkish readers.
 Terminology, vocabulary and style
• Sometimes Hurston uses some local sayings.
• A sample from the text

• In this sentence, the character addresses the

others as “cats” for their complaints.
Bana bakın, burada çene
yarıştırıyorsunuz ama o sizlerden
daha yaşlı değil.

Bana bakın hele, burada laklak

yapıyorsunuz ama o sizden daha yaşlı
değil ki.
• The editor added the sentence
because he tried to make it more
colloquial Turkish.
• “Laklak yapmak” is used instead of
“you cats”. These two phrases are not
grammatically or semantically same,
but both reflect the sound of language
and vocabulary
 Terminology, vocabulary and style
• One of the most important characters of the
book is Teacake, which is a nickname for the
person after his kindness and attractiveness.
• The translator decided to translate this nickname.
The editor aggreed with the idea.
• They decided to use Kurabiye, which actually
means “cookie” in English because Turkish
culture does not have a tea cake and the closest
word is Kurabiye.
• The translator and editor worked
together and they decided to use a
term.
• This process shows us the cooperation
after translation between the translator
and editor.
• This forms another step of the
translation process after the translator
finishes the translation.
 Figures of Speech
• Metaphors are not common in the book because
the author is like a storyteller.
• The style often goes to the edges of a
mythological legend, and then comes back to the
campfire stories.
• Since being the storyteller of a naive folk tale,
Hurston mostly uses smooth and easy
metaphors that wouldn’t bother readers.
• Another metaphor in the book is as follows:
• The editor did no revisions on this
sentence.
• Transediting phase does not necessarily
need an editing.
• Transediting also means to crosscheck
and analyze the translator’s choices.
 General Choices
• The continuous cooperation between the editor,
the translator and the publishing house during
the translation process made the editing phase a
lot easier.
• All of the general choices about the process are
shared between the editor and the translator.